What Do You Do When Your Marathon Didn’t Go As Planned?

Have you ever finished a marathon, missed your goals, and spent the next several days and weeks playing the “if only I had…” game?

If only I had run 7 seconds faster per mile.

If only I had been able to hold my pace in the last 10k.

If only I had been more realistic about what I was capable of.

If only I had taken one more Gu…

I recently finished my sixth marathon, 11 minutes off of my goal.

Ugh.

I finished 2 minutes slower than my last marathon, which is disappointing because I thought I was in better shape.

Heading into the final 100 yards, I was deflated knowing my “A” and “B” goals were totally out of reach. I summoned enough energy to raise my arms for a decent finisher photo, then wandered around wondering what happened. I have PR’d in every marathon I have ever run until this point. After seeing faster and faster times, I was used to a certain finish line euphoria that never came. As I stood there lying to Carrie Tollefson about how much “fun” I had, I was trying to figure out what went wrong, and what I could have done differently.

After reflecting for the past week, three big picture things come to mind when figuring out what to do after the marathon didn’t go as planned.

Evaluate your race and training.

Remember tomorrow is a new day.

Move on.

These are probably good things to think about even if your race went well. We are less likely to be critical of PR’s though. Here is what these three things look like for me right now.

My Training Strategy

After my awesome 2014 marathon, my coach Antonio Vega and I talked about what was next for me. I had run a 10 minute PR, and qualified for Boston by 27 seconds. Knowing I would need another 60 seconds to get an “un-official Boston qualifier,” I wanted to run another marathon soon to make sure I got in.

He thought I could break three hours.

What?

Knowing the challenge ahead, he put together a great plan. The basics were to fully recover, spend a few months building a solid base followed by 12 weeks of intense marathon specific training.

Unfortunately that plan was derailed when a nagging achilles injury forced me to start everything almost three months late. I certainly wasn’t starting from scratch, but I didn’t get to tackle the original plan.

Looking at notes from my training log, none of my key workouts went really well. They didn’t go terrible, which is why we kept the goal. Also, for a variety of reasons, sleep and strength training were also two areas I didn’t give as much priority as I have in the past. That was dumb.

Conclusion: Because of the early injury, I may have missed out on some higher mile weeks. I also wasn’t fully aware how tired I was going into the final week. More miles doesn’t automatically mean I would have made it, but it lead to a lack of mental confidence (more on that later).

My Race Strategy

My race strategy was pretty straight forward: settle into goal pace in the first few miles, zone out and hold on. I knew if I wasn’t able to hold my A pace, I could back off and settle into the B goal pace. Here are a few questions Antonio asks about the race itself.

Did you hit your splits? Not really. For the first 10 miles, I kept bouncing between the A goal and B goal pace. I couldn’t decide what I should do. At the end, I was just trying to finish.

How did you feel during the race? Terrible. Almost from the beginning I felt sluggish and my stomach felt weird. Gu’s didn’t go down normally, and I was forcing fluids.

What happened towards the end of the race? I wanted to sit down and be done around mile 23. The cramping in my right quad and left calf was brutal. At one point I contemplated asking a medic for a ride to the finish.

Conclusion: Even the best race strategy can’t offset the fact that sometimes you just don’t feel good.

My Mental Toughness

Unbridled optimism is not the same thing as being mentally tough during a marathon. Confidence in front of friends, family and blog readers is one thing. Being able to realistically evaluate where your training is at, is another thing entirely. Deep down, I always had this sense that I couldn’t run as fast as I was planning.

Despite Antonio’s continued confidence in me, I should have listened to my gut and adjusted my goal from the beginning. I’m not sure if that would have changed the outcome, but the voice in my head shouting obscenities at me may not have gotten as loud.

I also believe that I’m faster than I think I am. Perhaps through some less aggressive goals first, I can build the mental toughness to convince myself of that.

Conclusion: If you doubt your ability going into a race, you’re screwed. This will be the topic of a future blog post… stay tuned.

If you’d like to watch me process this a bit with Antonio, check out this video. I have found these conversations really helpful. Here is just a brief segment from what we talked about.

2. Remembering Tomorrow is a New Day

There are moments when I think achieving this somewhat arbitrary marathon goal means the world to me. When it has become a sole focus for months on end, it’s hard to let it go. It has become deeply personal.

Sometimes running mirrors life. When you work hard at something, you expect to see great results. But that’s not always how it goes. Remembering that tomorrow is another opportunity to work hard at something is part of what makes that thing worth achieving.

After the race, I went home and told my two year old son this. He just kept saying, “Running! Daddy running!”

As runners, we’re not doing this for short term gain. It’s a lifetime pursuit of something bigger. Inevitably, there will be peaks and valleys. How we choose to respond to them is what determines the type of people we become.

Running is a gift. No matter how disappointing a race may be, it is important to never forget what a privilege it is to run.

3. Moving On

Moving on is healthy. That may mean moving on from the marathon distance all together. It could mean an extended break from running (hopefully not too long).

Have you had a Disappointing Race?

Nathan started running when he was 14. 20+ years later, he's still going. When he's not running, he enjoys exploring the city with his son, finding new restaurants with his wife, traveling, or backpacking. He loves dark beer, dark chocolate, and dark coffee.Nathan currently lives in Portland, Oregon, but works in Minneapolis and runs wherever he is. Favorite Minnesota running route is anything that takes him along the Mississippi River.
Race Results.Nathan's day job is a Consultant with Leadership Vision in Downtown Minneapolis.

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Great post Nathan; honest and interesting, and of course educational. I love the personal posts 🙂

It’s tough when you don’t acheive your goal, especially when you aren’t used to it! i.e. PR’ing at every marathon so far is pretty sweet, but sub-3 is probably going to take even MORE focus and hard work, though I’m confident you can do it.

You slacked on strength? You look strong in those pics!

frenat

Thanks Jessie! I agree that it’s going to take a lot more work, but I’m excited to tackle it.

Sometimes failing at a goal is a good thing as it will motivate you and help you work harder. I had a really rough 2013 due to some minor injuries and failed at my goal twice before taking about 10 months to recover fully and train hard for my 2014 fall marathon. I used my failures to fuel my training and make sure it wouldn’t happen again.

We’ve all been there and you’ll bounce back! Keep training hard!

frenat

I totally feel that way Ben, thanks for the encouragement!

Nathan

Sara

Nathan, thank you for your brutal honesty. My advice is that sometimes you just need to let yourself grieve. And know that it’s ok to do so. We put so much of ourselves into our running that it’s natural to feel a loss when things don’t go how we hoped/wanted/planned. After an AMAZINGLY disappointing TC 1 Mile, I took some time to be upset. I tried to stay away from social media and running friends, and just let myself be sad. I contemplated quitting running. I did some yoga. And after about a week, I got over it and was able to Evaluate, Remember that Tomorrow is Another Day and Move On. But I do think that if I hadn’t just taken the time to be upset, it would’ve come out at some other point and I might have quit running.

It wasn’t your day. Sometimes that happens. But I have no doubt that you’ll achieve your goal, no matter what it is, running or not. You are one of the most motivated, talented and ambitious people I’ve ever met. You’re also super-stinking nice. You’re allowed a temper tantrum every now and then. 🙂

frenat

HA! Well thanks Sara, sometimes I do feel like I want to throw a little tantrum 🙂

Thank for sharing in such an honest post. I was off in Yellowstone on v̶a̶c̶a̶t̶i̶o̶n̶ some high altitude training and it was killing me not to know how the race went. When I finally got back to civilization to check on everyone’s results, I was so bummed for you – it was an amazing time, but I knew it probably wasn’t what you were hoping for. Thanks for the insights and motivation into your training cycle and race. I had a really rough run at the Lake Minnetonka HM this year, but was able to use the experience to bounce back a month later and PR at the Minneapolis HM. Some of the techniques you mention above played a big part in that outcome.

frenat

Thanks Eric! Glad you were able to bounce back. That’s my goal as well!

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